LA Ghoul
by Sarek11
Summary: Aogiri Tree's actions in Tokyo have led to growing fears among both ghoul and human populations of the world, including those in Los Angeles


_A few months before the Owl Extermination Operation by the CCG._

"The ghoul organization in Tokyo known as Aogiri Tree has become increasingly violent, leading to growing fears among world leaders that this threat or a similar one will spread to other nations. Prominent members of Aogiri Tree include 'Eyepatch', 'Black Rabbit', escaped prisoner Naki, and their leader, the 'One-Eyed Owl'. Tokyo's Ghoul Countermeasure's Bureau, or CCG, assures its citizens and the rest of the world that the ghoul threat is 'under control', but recent events show the opposite of that. Aogiri Tree seems to be growing at much faster rate than before and their attacks have become increasingly ambitious after their successful raid on Cochlea, a ghoul detention center in Tokyo's 23rd Ward. Some world leaders contend that these successful attacks, if continued, will inspire ghouls in other countries to organize and rebel in a similar fashion. That concludes our world news section, with Channel 13 Los Angeles, I'm- "

"That's bullshit." I said to myself as I turned off the TV. _The only reason it's so bad over there is because of how dense the ghoul population is, here in LA there aren't nearly as many. Also, the CCG is very oppressive compared to the Human Protection Agency, that's why I left 15 years ago._ There was a noise by the doorway that sounded like someone shifting their weight. I turned my head to the right to see my 9-year-old daughter standing there. "Shouldn't you be in bed?" I asked her.

"Mmhm," she nodded, "but I couldn't sleep."

"Why not?"

"I'm scared."

"Is it the inspectors again?"

"Mmhm, but now I'm scared about that," she said, pointing to the now-off TV.

"You saw that huh?" she nodded. "Don't worry about it, nothing bad will happen here because of that."

"Why not?" she inquired.

"Life for ghouls in Japan, and Tokyo especially, is very different to how we have it here. You see, there they have to fight each other for hunting grounds, where they have to kill people; here we don't have to do either of those things. The stress that comes from their fighting and the CCG has led to them to create this terrorist group in an effort to change things, but they never will."

"Why won't they change things?" My child always asks so many questions.

"Well, violence like that never solves anything; their methods are too extreme. The ghouls here would never let things get to the point where we have to do what they're doing in Tokyo. Does that make you feel better?"

"Yes daddy."

"Alright, you should get some sleep now, it's late. I'll see you in the morning, goodnight, I love you."

"I love you too daddy!"

I smiled and watched as she scampered off to her room, her hazelnut hair flowing behind her, she reminded me of her mother. Her mother was human, and I a ghoul. We met about a year after I arrived in the US and started dating shortly after. She didn't find out I was a ghoul until two and a half years into our relationship but it didn't bother her as long as I didn't kill anyone, which I hadn't for ten years at that point. We were married eleven years ago, soon after, she expressed she wanted a child. I made her well aware of the risks, but she didn't care, she really wanted a child. The nine months of pregnancy were very tough on her, but she marched on with a smile. The day my daughter was born was the happiest day of my life, but it was also the saddest. Ever since I was born, there could never be more than one person I loved in my life. My father died shortly after I was born, my mother was killed by the CCG a few weeks before I left for the US, and on that day, my wife died during the delivery. Enough thinking about the past though, it's almost midnight and I have to work tomorrow. 

Seven a.m., Monday morning. I need to get more sleep, I feel dead right now. I brought my daughter to Toshihiro, the leader of the ghoul organization here, to watch her while I go to work. He informed me that Michael asked for an organization meeting tonight at six p.m. to discuss the events in Tokyo. Great. He'll probably use it for fearmongering.

When I was about to leave Japan, an old ghoul that ran a coffee shop in the 20th Ward informed me of a group of ghouls in Los Angeles that kept the peace. He said he would contact them for me if I intended to go there. He did, and when I landed in LAX I was greeted by Toshihiro who, as it turns out, was originally from the 4th Ward, just like me. The organization was exactly like how the old ghoul from the 20th told me, no one killed for food, there was no fighting with each other, and best of all, there was no conflict with the government anti-ghoul agency. It stayed that way until about three years ago, when Michael joined. When he joined, it was apparent that he didn't fit in with the ideals. When we first heard of Aogiri Tree, he sided with them, saying they were doing what was necessary. At first no one followed him, but soon the inspectors here got more aggressive and started to actively seek out ghouls. Luckily, they aren't very good but it still scared some to follow Michael. Now the group is almost evenly divided between his followers and Toshihiro's. Michael and his followers will occasionally kill for food, but never any more than they need.

As much as I don't want to, I'll go to the meeting tonight, but I'll leave my daughter at home. She doesn't need more reasons to be scared at night than she already has. I work until five p.m. tonight, so I'll have a little bit of time to spend with her before the meeting.

I've worked the same job all fifteen years I've been here, a coffee shop in a decent part of LA. The most entertaining part about it is the different people that work there. One thing I and my fellow ghouls have noticed is that there are pretty much only three different types of people that work in coffee shops, white male human hipsters, stereotypical "white girls", and ghouls, but most people just see the ghouls as "normal" humans though. At my coffee shop, there are five workers including myself and a manager. The manager is really just a businessman and doesn't care much about coffee, two of my coworkers are these stereotypical white girls, there's one hipster, and myself and another ghoul, John. We're fairly small but we get enough business to do well.

"Good morning Kiyoshi!" John said as I walked in. "Not much sleep last night?"

"Is it that apparent?" I replied, "I think I'll look and feel better after a cup of coffee, I'm gonna go make one real quick before clocking in."

"I already made one for you buddy!"

"Oh really? Thanks man."

"Don't mention it!" he said, then after a short pause he began again with, "Hey did you hear the news?"

"About what happened in Tokyo?" I inquired.

"Yep!" John responded.

"Who hasn't? It was on every news station in the state. It's just stupid. Oh yeah, Michael called a meeting tonight at six because of it and Toshihiro agreed to it."

"Oh really? Are you gonna go?" John asked me.

"Yeah but I'm going to leave my daughter at home for this one, I don't want her to be even more scared. What about you? You gonna go?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure yet, one of my other friends wanted to do something tonight." He replied.

The two white girls weren't working today, so it was just John and I until the hipster got in an hour later. Luckily it didn't get too busy today and everything went smoothly. Five o'clock came around and I left, picked up my daughter from Toshihiro and went home to spend a little time with her. When it came close to six I had to go though.

"Alright I have to go to a meeting now sweetie." I told her.

"Can I come too daddy?" she asked.

"Not this time, sorry."

"Aww but you always let me come."

"This meeting will be a little different and I think it would be best if you didn't come this time. I'll be gone for almost two hours so you'll be home alone but I'll lock the doors, don't open the door for anyone you don't know."

"Okay…" she sighed.

"Don't worry, if you put on some cartoons it'll seem like I wasn't even gone that long." I told her.

"Alright!" she seemed a little happier once the prospect of watching cartoons all night was brought up.

I arrived to the meeting a few minutes early, and already the majority of the 300-ish people were there. We always met in the same place, a barn on the outskirts of Los Angeles owned by one of the members. We've started to outgrow it in recent years but we still manage to fit everyone in.

"It seems as though everyone is here so let's get started." Toshihiro said from the single podium in the front of the barn using the microphone, then waited for everyone's conversations to stop. "This is a non-scheduled meeting so I'll skip the formalities. Michael has called for this meeting so I'll go ahead and let him speak." He stepped down and took a seat to the side as Michael got up to speak.

"Thank you all for coming, I'm sorry for the short notice but after hearing the news I'm sure you all think this was necessary." There were some nods among the crowd. "For those who haven't heard, the freedom fighters known as Aogiri Tree have been making lots of headway in Tokyo, and their efforts have made an impact on that region of the country as a whole. This however has made the leaders in other parts of the globe fearful. I think everyone agrees that this cannot be good for us." Even more nods this time, including one from Toshihiro. "I believe that they will actively seek us out and suppress us before we can do anything. But we can't let them do that!" His voice became more powerful. "We must do something before they can suppress us! Do you see what they do in Tokyo? They torture our fellow ghouls, they destroy their families, and they turn our corpses into weapons!" The anger and uneasy started to grow to tangible amounts. Toshihiro and I shared a glance, we both knew that the first two were wrong. "They'll do the same thing here soon! But we might be able to stop them before they do!"

"How do we stop them?" someone shouted from the crowd.

"We follow in the footsteps of our brothers in Aogiri Tree, we destroy the Human Protection Agency!" Toshihiro and I instantly locked eyes as the crowd erupted into affirmative screams. The HPA was responsible for the peace between the ghouls and the humans, even with a recent increase in counter-ghoul actions. We both knew that nothing good would come of this. Michael continued through the outcries, "Anything human is horrible! Anything human is horrible!" This chant was echoed by the majority of the gathering, but was soon stopped when Michael put out his hand. "That is all I have to say to you all tonight. Myself and my close associates will be in contact with you to prepare for the coming events!" With that, the meeting was over and everyone returned home, myself included.

The entire way home was filled with thoughts of what the implications would be if what Michael proposed was carried out. The entire city would fall to chaos. All ghouls near LA would be killed, and for the ones in the rest of the US, life would become extremely hard. I just hope he wasn't being serious.

"I'm home!" I shouted as I walked through the door.

No reply. I waited a second. Still no reply.

Probably no big deal, she's most likely engrossed in a cartoon.

I went to the TV room. The television was still on, but it was static. I looked to the wall opposite the TV and to my horror I saw my daughter, cannibalized, lying against the wall on the ground. Written in her blood above her were the words "ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE". I fell to my knees, tears started to well up in my eyes, the static continued. Then everything went red, the words on the wall burned into my brain.

"ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE"

They got to her.

"ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE"

She was half human.

"ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE"

They killed her.

"ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE"

Why?

"ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE"

WHY?

"ANYTHING HUMAN IS HORRIBLE"

ANYTHING.

HUMAN.

IS.

HORRIBLE.

Then everything faded to black.


End file.
